Why does everybody hates me?

[Watcher]

It is always the same when I play a mayor country. After a few wars everyone is waiting a chance to ceclere war on me, even if they have no chance of winning or o reason to hate me. Why is this so?
And... Why doesn't it happen to the mayor powers played by the computer when they act as I do?

 

[Sorcerer]

This is due to the so-called BadBoy value. When you are a 'powermonger' and wage many wars without CB, gain many provinces in peace treaties and so on, you are 'awarded' BB points. When you have reached a high BB score, other countries will attack you more likely. Also, your relations drop everytime you annex countries, declare wars and so on...
It's the way the game tries to form a large alliance against countries that get too powerful. Just lay low for a while, the BB goes down one point every 4 years. You can look up the different BB values in the FAQ.

 

[Watcher]

Call me stupid if you want to, but: What is the FAQ?
Besides, I use to lay down for DECADES and it doesn't work.

 

[Sorcerer]

FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions. You can search the forum, too, but on certain topics you will be squashed with threads...
Try it here:
http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15958

You must have amassed quite a big BB there, lad. What have you done so far? Annexations earn you quite some BB points, you know.

 

[unmerged(6909)]

Yep, Sorcerer is right.
In short: if you force-annex a nation you will get at least 5 BB points (correct me if 6 is the minimum and don't start with religion and ROTW )
By doing nothing your BB decreases by 1 every 4 years (depends on version iirc).

So waiting for decades, that's right, that's what you have to do to lower your BB besides loosing a province in a peace treaty (BB reduced by 1), but that's something I'm sure you don't want to do.

What can you do to prevent this?
1. Diploannexing. You will still get some BB points, but less.
2. Let others do the annexing and then take the provinces from them without annexing them.
3. Let other nations be the big badboy. Then you can do whatever you want. BB wars are fought against the nation with the highest BB. Just stay a bit behind them (very often the big bad boy is Turkey, Spain, or France).

You can check the badbody value for each nation by opening your save game with a text editor. Search for "badboy".

 

[Sorcerer]

Yeah, I think 5 for the annexation and 1 per province, so you start with 6.

 

[unmerged(7154)]

BB works in a strange way, Russia declare wars against the horde,sibir,kazan,sweden,royalists,spartak mosokow fans,everyone and its BB value its 6 (1520).
playing austria i have declare war against bohemia and helvetia and my BB value is 30+.

the AI is learning fast,i have notice that even with a BB value in 300+ (you have to cheat to reach this ponint) countries that you have defeat several times in the battlefield avoid to declare war on you

 

[Sorcerer]

Perhaps it's because Russia has more CB's and declares war on different religions, while you have probably declared war on loyal Catholic countries...
Or have you waited till Bohemia and Helvetia went reformed?

 

[unmerged(7526)]

Learning AI

I am not sure those AI may ever learn. So far I am playing for huge Russia, having borders with Sweden, Poland and Turkey in Europe, Mugal and Hafsid Empire in Asia, Netherlands and England in North America. When I manage to get into war, all of them declare wars on me, though they were already beaten a number of times with severe losses of territories for them. Though in peaceful times none is willing to be the first - so I need warmonger allies

 

[unmerged(6909)]

Originally posted by Themistofelis

a BB value in 300+ (you have to cheat to reach this ponint)

You have the chance of getting even more in a world conquest tour. DOW without a CB isn't important for a while because there is always another small nation which gives you a +1 when annexed. So I had more than 400 by 1600.

 

[Watcher]

The AI does learn, but slowly and the hard way. It's happened to me several times, if you crash another nation they become reluctant at making war on you.
For instance: I was playing France last week and I took a lot of provinces from Spain (I had to fight them many times to do this). After their last defeat around 1620, Spain was not as prone as the other nations to declare war against me, though they had a CB on me.
The moral is: If you beat them hard enough, they will stay beaten.

 

[Sorcerer]

Looks like I haven't beaten them hard enough.